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Ordering multiple adverbs

When you have more than one adverb describing a verb, there is a convention for what order you should write the adverbs in:

  • Adverbs describing the manner in which something is done, such as ‘reluctantly’, ‘energetically’.

  • Adverbs describing the place or location that the verb is happening in - ‘in the church’, ‘on the table’.

  • Adverbs describing the frequency that the verb is happening at - ‘daily’, ‘every hour’.

  • Adverbs describing the time that the verb is happening at - ‘afternoon’, ‘before school’, ‘during break’.

  • Adverbs describing the reason or purpose of the verb - ‘to get rich’, ‘to go to sleep’.

Here’s an example sentence, written first without using the rules and then written using the rules:

I ran energetically on the treadmill once a day after work to increase my fitness.

I ran after work once a day to increase my fitness on a treadmill energetically.

The second sentence just doesn’t sound right, because the adverbs aren’t written in the correct order.